THE CURSE OF BIG GAME LTo THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR:1
SER?.4.11 a footnote to a letter written by Mr. T. M. Hastings in your issue of December 23rd, 1905, on the subject of game reserves in Central Africa you very wisely write :--" If game sanctuaries can be proved to prevent the development of our African possessions, then most assuredly they cannot be maintained."
I have been requested by my Committee to write to you point- ing out that some months ago the British Central Africa Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce sent (through H.M. Acting Com- missioner) a memorial to the Colonial Office on this very subject. I beg to enclose a copy of the memorial for your perusal. They also wish me to state emphatically that all that Mr. Hastings has written is only too true. I also enclose a rough sketch-map of the Protectorate showing the position of the three sanctuaries.
The Elephant Marsh Game Reserve, you will notice, is right at the gate of the country, close to the Customs port of Chiromo. The railway skirts one side, and the road from Chiromo to Chikwawa and Cholo runs more or less through it and alongside. Natives reside within its precincts. It adjoins land owned by European firms. We heard lately of one planter trying to scare (ineffectually) buffalo from a field of cotton ! Lions have been seen in the streets of Chiromo, and there is a belt of tsetse in the marsh which precludes the use of the Chiromo-Chikwawa road.
The Shims Reserve, not such a strict sanctuary as the Elephant Marsh, lies near the administrative capital of the country, within a few miles of Zomba township. A firm at Zomba lost over fifteen herd of cattle there owing to tsetse. This reserve also bounds an estate belonging to a European firm with a large native population, and one of the principal seats of the coffee and tobacco industries, cattle-rearing being also engaged in.
The Central Angoniland Reserve is in a more out-of-the-way district, but includes nanny native villages, and is in a district notably suitable for cattle-raising. It is native gossip that owing to the increasing numbers of elephants they cannot cultivate their gardens, and that when complaint is made the natives are told to remove, as the elephants certainly cannot be driven away. Natives, of course, are not allowed to shoot or capture game. This rumour may not be true, but it is evident that elephants and native villages are incongruous.
I would point out that the preservation of innocuous species could be brought about by (a) prohibiting their being hunted or shot if there is danger of their extinction, or (b) by a close season during the breeding period of the year. The main argument against these sanctuaries is that they are breeding grounds for the carnivore, which must in such sanctuaries increase pari passe with the game ; and because of that fact the sanctuaries can never fulfil their purpose to perfection. At present man is precluded from hunting in these reserves, but lions and leopards are unrestricted ! To make the reserves effective they should be cleared of carnivore. To judge of the destruction which goes on by means of the carnivore, it is only necessary to reckon how many bucks, say, ten lions would require for their sustenance during one year,—that is, supposing they do not leave the reserve and attack cattle, sheep, goats, and native pigs, which unfor- tunately they often do. These carnivore are a menace to human life. No reserve ought to be within miles of any human habita- tion or centre of industry ; but this test condemns every one of the three. If placed near to human habitations, then they ought to be securely fenced.
The other great argument is that they tend to perpetuate the great tsetse scourge. This fly is a well-known impediment to the development of Central Africa, and until these reserves are abolished it will be impossible to get rid of the tsetse-fly. There is a further consideration in this connection, and that is the now proved fact that a species of tsetse-fly is the carrier of the dreaded sleeping-sickness disease. It may be the case that the true tsetse is not a carrier of this disease; but it is just as likely that it may be, or that where the true tsetse exists the allied form will also be found. Should this supposition be correct, then it only needs the introduction of people suffering from the sleeping-sickness disease in a caravan from the north or north-west for this disease to be established here, and this surely is a menace which ought to be guarded against.
Further, there is the question of what is innocuous game' Hippopotami are regular pests to natives. The native must per- force have his gardens near the river. This provides a tit-bit for the hippo, and we can guess how much of a garden is left after the hippo has had his supper ! It may mean semi-starvation for the native. Then, again, buffaloes are not only dangerous to human life, but would also make short work of crops. The argu- ment is even greater in the ease of elephants, and it is the height of absurdity to imagine that any cultivation can be carried on in the vicinity of these animals.
Less might be said about these animals were the reserves established with the view not only of preserving the animals, but of making them useful to man. Hitherto in. this country there has never been any attempt made to domesticate or use in any way the animals which are preserved. Surely it is folly merely to preserve them for the use of sportsmen or to provide speci- mens for second-class museums. Even in the old days of Rome no such iniquity was practised by the tyrants as to have open places where dangerous wild animals were preserved close to the population.
I sometimes think of what would be the effect if, say, in England two lions, a few leopards, and a score of wolves were to be let loose in Windsor Forest, or in some deer park. Some time ago there was a scare in the Northern Counties over a wolf which had escaped from a menagerie. Those who read the amusing details of that case can imagine what the result would be in the hypothetical case I have outlined. What, then, is the difference between the Chiromo township and the Elephant Marsh Sanctuary, or the Zomba township and the Lake Shirwa Reserve? As a matter of fact, we are accustomed to live among wild animals, and a lion hunt in the neighbourhood of a town serves as an outing to the residents. The native in the villages, or the planter who loses his stock or has to go to a lot of extra expense for watch- men and to build strong cattle kraals, does not see the fun of the thing to the same extent, just as in the wolf case above, however amusing the accounts were to readers at a distance, the scare was very real to those whose sheep were mangled. What progress would be made in any civilised country were the wild animals to exist in the woods and forests ? This whole idea of game sanctuaries rests upon the idea that Africa is a wild, uncivilised, and useless country, instead of which it is being pierced by railways in every direction, and is being fast turned into a civilised, well-populated, and productive territory. In conclusion, I would point out that the reserves are absolutely dangerous to human life and property ; that the preserving of game in a thickly populated agricultural and stock-raising country is impossible without seriously hampering the progress of the country; and that even the presence of the larger game is incompatible with the vigorous prosecution of agricultural and stook-raising enterprises. It should be remembered that the total area of the British Central Africa Protectorate is only forty thousand square miles, while the native population, which is fast increasing, numbers already close on a million. The only reserve in Central Africa which appears to have been judiciously placed is the Lake Mweru Reserve in North-Eastern Rhodesia, and it is surely large enough for all the British territory usually marked on maps as British Central Africa, and which includes the Nyasaland Protectorate and North-Eastern Rhodesia.
President Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce.
Blantyre, Nyasaland.
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